Monday, January 4, 2010

A couple of things prompted me to write this post...
First, our neighbor asked how it is we have so little trash to put out each week. (We put out about 1 kitchen sized bag a week. We have 2 adults and 2 small children). Second, my husband spent about 10 minutes de-constructing our holiday wreath so he could put the greenery in the yard waste bin and the wire frame in the trash. It occurred to me that we may be in the minority with the amount of trash we generate.

So, I'm curious - how many bags of trash do you put out each week (1 bag = 1 kitchen sized bag)

I know many factors play into this, including recycling opportunities in your area, but the landfill impact remains the same. (And...if you have recycling options but don't use them, 2010 could be a good time to start!)

4
comments:

We usually only have one trash bag, sometimes two. Our neighbor had two trash containers full and overflowing this week...so that was probably at least 6-8 bags. My jaw dropped when I saw that waiting at the curb.

Thank you for getting me to think about this. We recently had to get a bigger sized garbage can as ours was always overflowing and the neighbor dog was always getting into it on garbage day. Although we do recycle, the most of our garbage is left over food that hasn't been eaten, diapers, cat box waste, and your typical hygiene waste like pads, q-tips, cosmetic sponges. Plus we've been cleaning out our house like crazy. So you have inspired me to cut down on our waste. We are going to start a food composte...already have a bucket waiting. Not sure what you can and can't put in there....any tips on cutting down please email me! Not sure if you still have my email address..if not, it's foster.eva@gmail.com

We are a family of 6 and *usually* only have one garbage container (about the size of a green bag) full every week. We compost (we have green bins here) and we recycle and usually have 2/3 of a blue bag of recyclables every week. I'm always amazed at the amount of garbage that other, smaller, households generate routinely! It is shocking!